For healthy and enjoyable motor development at every age and every level.
Learning to move is important for everyone’s health, well-being, and fitness. It’s the foundation for both a recreational and competitive athletic life. Enjoyment in movement is a key motivator to continue being active, no matter what age. This is fostered through variety and diversity in a challenging and versatile movement offering. Versatile movement leads to better adaptability, fewer injuries, improved athletic performance, and enhanced creativity. Learning to move and versatile movement go hand in hand. Now, the question is: what is versatile movement?
By: René Wormhoudt, Prof. dr. Geert Savelsbergh & Jorick Hendriksen
Versatile movement is often described as: broad motor development, broad motor education, all-round or multi-directional movement, or multisport. The interpretation of the concept of versatile movement often doesn’t extend ‘offering variation in sports.’ The Athletic Skills Model (ASM) has developed versatile movement, with the ‘Fundamental 10!’, from a vision to a practically applicable tool for groups, individuals and all forms of movement. It is applicable in Physical Education, rehabilitation/healthcare, elite and recreational sports, unorganized sports, the corporate world, and vitality programs.
The Fundamental 10! with ten Basic Movement Skills:
1. Balancing and falling | 2. Romping and fighting | 3. Moving and locomotion | 4. Jumping and landing | 5. Rolling, tumbling and turning | 6. Throwing, catching, hitting and aiming | 7. Kicking, shooting and aiming | 8. Climbing | 9. Swinging | 10. Music in motion
For all ages
The ‘Fundamental 10!’ consists of ten basic movement skills, which can all be expressed in various ways. These 10 basic movement skills provide structure to a versatile movement programme, offering opportunities for every age and level to become skilled in movement in a fun and challenging way. While versatile movement is often associated with children, the ‘Fundamental 10!’ is for all ages! Learning to move better and being able to move in a more effective wat makes everyone fitter and healthier.
“Learning to move better and being able to move in a more effective way, makes everyone fitter and healthier.”
FIRST AN ATHLETE, THEN A SPECIALIST
It is well-known that many top athletes have practiced multiple sports, which means they have covered a large part of the "Fundamental 10!" This has contributed to better physical resilience, fewer injuries resulting in more movement hours, a longer athletic career, and the development of more creative movement solutions.
Incorporating many basic movement skills into your movement repertoire used to happen automatically. For example, during outdoor play, PE, music or dance lessons. However, the current generation of youth is less fit, and we need to offer additional movement programmes and compensate for the ‘forgotten movement skills.’ In addition, today’s adults and elderly are not moving enough. Our sedentary behavior is excessive, and when we do move, it is often one-dimensional. It doesn’t seem logical to learn people how to move better or provide a balance and fall training only at a later age. It makes more sense to influence people throughout their entire lives with a well-thought-out, diverse movement programme. The ‘Fundamental 10!’ serves as a menu of choices to provide trainers, coaches, teachers, therapists, parents, mentors with a structure for designing a versatile movement programme.
“You can use the ‘Fundamental 10!’ as a menu for movement programmes.”
How does the Fundamental 10! work?
Specific training – which is part of the ASM – remains important, but there is more! You can improve in soccer, swimming, or tennis not just by playing soccer, swimming, or playing tennis. The Fundamental 10! provides a framework for implementing versatile movement.
The ASM advises using the Fundamental 10! to focus on all 10 basic movement skills that are present within sports, games, activities, professional profiles, or training exercises. Through the Fundamental 10!, structure can be brought into versatile movement programmes such as PE-classes and vitality programmes. When focusing on a specific sport or activity, an analysis can be made based on the 10 basic movement skills. Some fundamental activities may be present in that particular sport, while others are not. The fundamentals that are included in the sport are often developed in a one-dimensional way, specific to that sport. We usually don’t pay attention to the forms that are not included. The less fundamental forms are present, the less diverse the movement, the more one-sided it becomes, and the higher the risk of overuse injuries and strain.
Many people go running to stay fit. Running on a flat surface utilizes only two of the ten basic movement skills, with little variation within those two forms. According to the Fundamental 10!, it is therefore a one-dimensional form of movement. The number of injuries per 1,000 hours of sport is highest in running compared to other sports, making it the most injury-prone sport (see ‘What is the Most Dangerous Sport,’ De Volkskrant, NL). Playing a sport like tennis, for example, utilizes four movement forms from the Schijf van 10!. To apply the Fundamental 10! to tennis, more attention should be given to a versatile application of these four tennis-specific movement forms, supplemented with skills from the remaining six movement forms that are not present in tennis to complete the Fundamental 10!.
KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING TO SUSTAINABLE IMPACT
By sharing knowledge and insights about versatile movement with students, athletes, and patients, a sustainable contribution can be made to enjoying movement throughout life. For example, the physical therapist provides the patient with insight into movement behavior and the possibilities or limitations during and after rehabilitation, while the physical education teacher offers students a foundation to responsibly manage their own movement behavior even after school.
In practice, it is almost impossible to apply all ten fundamental movement forms in all possible approaches. Fortunately, this is not necessary. The first important step is striving to expand movement skills. For this, coaches in sports, parents, talent development programmes, clubs, associations, and not least the athletes themselves, need to think differently about the content of movement programmes, advice, education, and collaboration models. Furthermore, it is important that the choices made for the content of a movement programme take into account the enjoyment factor and the personal preferences of the child, adult, or elderly person.
“Take into account the personal preferences of the child, adult, or elderly person.”
De Fundamental 10! connects
The Fundamental 10! is universally applicable for all forms of movement. For training in elite and recreational sports, for physical education lessons and rehabilitation, and also for vitality programs in the corporate world or movement advice for everyday life. Due to its universal application, the Fundamental 10! provides an universal language for professionals. Collaboration can emerge from a unified approach. For example, the physical therapist works with the community sports coach to develop movement programmes, PE-classes can be aligned with elite sports programmes. When the benefits of the Fundamental 10! become clear, there will be greater appreciation for practicing other sports, different games, and, of course, for PE in general. Parents will learn to look at their child’s motor development differently, clubs will collaborate more, sports associations will train coaches in a new way, PE will work more closely with clubs, and adults will adapt their movement strategies to new ideas and opportunities.
More than just versatile movement
As a result of applying the Fundamental 10!, other areas of social and physical development will be positively influenced, such as general coordination and fitness. This is called a ‘transfer of learning’ in the ASM. The skills and competences a person learns in one situation or sport will be applied in another context. To develop multiple basic movement skills, it is necessary to become familiar with other sports, other clubs, and different group compositions. This means influence from other cultures, through different coaches, colleagues, communication styles, and forms of discipline or perseverance. You are exposed to other rules and guidelines, which leads to positive transfers in tactical and strategic thinking and behavior. The crucial adaptability is fully activated on multiple levels!
“The crucial adaptability is fully activated on multiple levels!”
From Theory to Practice
The application of the Fundamental 10! requires solid underpinning. It is important to have the right knowledge to effectively support movement programs and interventions. The ASM was first published in 2012 in a Dutch-language book and expanded in 2018 with an English-language edition and in 2021 in Japanese. The growing interest in the ASM and the Fundamental 10! is currently being addressed through the training of sports professionals and physiotherapists at the ASM Academy, the development of innovative training materials such as the ASM Adaptaball and ASM REV3RSE and the design of movement facilities for municipalities, schools, sports accommodations, and health centers based on the concepts of Skills Garden and PLAYCE.
